It was bound to happen sooner or later, and it did. We've been talking about this mythical fight Jean-Claude Van Damme has been preparing for now for just about two years, and it never felt any closer. There were talks of having Golden Boy promote the fight in Vegas, but after contacting the NSAC it was clear that they had never heard from anyone about a JCVD fight, ever, and that it would be a big risk for Oscar De la Hoya and his crew.

There were talks about China, Thailand, Japan, getting K-1 to promote the fight. There were dates, it was pushed back due to JCVD's schedule, trouble finding a suitable promoter. The list goes on and on and on and sadly, on. But it seems like JCVD has finally found suitable business partners and an arena to host such an event as a kickboxing fight against Somluck Kamsing.

Apparently the legendary Fairtex gym will be hosting JCVD's fight in November or December of this year in Thailand. Banjong Bussarakamwong of Fairtex will be promoting the fight and is currently looking for a suitable 30,000 seat arena, possibly the Impact Arena or the Hua Mak Indoor Stadium. There are talks about the fight being broadcast live across the world as well and Kamsing was given a 200,000 baht down payment (about $6,500).

We'll have to see how this shapes up, but for now this is the most concrete news we've heard on this fight, ever. [source]

There are some topics that are just so strange that you have to say them out loud to believe that they truly exist. The mysterious kickboxing fight between Olympic boxer Somluck Kamsing and action movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme is one of them. We've been covering this fight for a while now, almost two years by the time the fight is actually scheduled to take place, which is amazing in and of itself.

JCVD himself has set up a Facebook "event" page for the fight, currently scheduled for April 1, 2011 in Las Vegas. As of this story being published, no one that I've spoken with in Las Vegas knows of this fight and the page itself says that the date and place are subject to change. There have been multiple places named as well as multiple dates floating around for this fight, everything was set to line up with three projects JCVD is currently working on, from a film project, to a reality series, to a documentary on training for a fight. He will also do his first major VO work in the second Kung Fu Panda film and there is talk of him working on a "Muppets" project as well.

His team recently released a video where JCVD publicly speaks about his decision to fight at this point in his career, how he is a normal guy and is doing this because he believes it is the right thing for him to do. Then some of his fans from around the world tell you that JCVD will win or do crazy, JCVD-esque kicks to show you why he'll win (the Hindi dude at 2:33 yells with such conviction).

Jean-Claude Van Damme most likely has a fight coming up soon in Thailand against a Thai Olympic Boxer Somluck Kamsing, and on top of that the action star has somewhere in the vicinity of a million other projects that he is working on. Steven Seagal is currently riding tanks and pretending to be training high level MMA fighters how to do the most basic of strikes, which makes JCVD's ventures seem all the more legitimate and likable. One of his latest ventures is a reality television series titled, "Behind Closed Doors" where a British crew follow the action star around as he lives his life as only he can.

Expendables 2 star and all-around action movie bad-ass Jean-Claude Van Damme is a man who is not a stranger to getting a lot of press. JCVD's press tour for Expendables 2 also happens to fall in line with when the whole world is talking about the 2012 London Olympics, which is currently going on as I type. The Olympics, of course, are the worldwide event that happens every few years and brings together the best athletes from across the globe in a vast array of different sports to compete for medals and prestige. Absent from the Summer Olympics is any form of Kickboxing or combat sport outside of Boxing, Wrestling, Judo and possibly Tae Kwon Do, depending on how you value Olympic TKD.

“For people to understand the techniques of kickboxing is very difficult if you’re not inside the game. A lot of times with kickboxing, you only see the violence. You don’t see the main thing of the fight. It looks violent on TV from the outside, but very peaceful and technical on the inside. Only the warriors understand that, and maybe it’s too violent these days to be in good terms with the Olympics.”

He also mentioned his love for K-1 and MMA as well, but no mention of the long-rumored Kickboxing contest between himself and Somluck Kamsing, which many, including Kamsing, believe will not happen.

I feel like the title alone and how instrumental the Jean-Claude Van Damme movies were in the 80's into making Kickboxing a more popular sport here in the United States warrants coverage, but damn, they are remaking The Kickboxer. This is really a classic film in the world of martial arts, Kickboxing specifically. It featured Dennis Alexio as JCVD's brother, who was training and fighting in Thailand before he ran into the devious Thai Boxer Tong Po, who crippled him. This led JCVD on a mission of revenge and to learn Muay Thai.

What wasn't to like about it?

Now it looks like it is being remade with an interesting cast of characters to back it up. Alain Moussi will be the lead actor, best known for his marital arts-based stunt work in big budget films like Pacific Rim, White House Down, Brick Houses and many others. Hong Kong actor/producer/director Steven Fung will be directing the remake. It sounds like they change things up a little bit, with Eric (the Dennis Alexio character) being murdered by Tong Po, but hey, why not, right?

The film is also set to feature former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre as well as WWE wrestler Batista (Dave Bautista), although it isn't clear which roles they will play. I'd have to say that Batista would make for a convincing Tong Po, wouldn't you agree.?